The Long Game

by Mikey2084

In Zootopia where anyone can be anything some things are still forbidden. Judy is confronted with a choice between suffering the consequences of protecting her family and being with her soulmate, she chooses to protect her family. As Nick tries to find a way for the two of them to be together our heroes find themselves once again protecting the city from a new threat. A Zootopia AU

28. Fixer Upper

Disclaimer: Zootopia and all related characters are owned by Disney. All other characters, product names, trademarks, and copyrights, belong to their respective owners.

…..

It was a beautiful morning for a run, he'd almost tried to sneak into one of the media rooms and bury himself in a couch and catch another hour of sleep, but his inner rabbit wanted to get out of the house and get some exercise. Nick rounded the path and headed up to the porch of the house. 'Inner rabbit, yeah right,' his outer fox was panting a lot more than it should be after only an hour of running, he needed to get back into a regular workout schedule, being injured and 'moseying' around with Buckstein hadn't been good for him.

After walking the last hundred yards of his run as a warm down, Nick stopped where his car was parked in front of the house. Pausing for a few moments, Nick rubbed his paw along the driver's side door and smiled, Lucas had done a fantastic job of cleaning off the graffiti, and the car's exterior looked better than when Finn had gotten it detailed out.

Nick was about to head into the house when he noticed a placard resting on the dashboard in front of the steering wheel. Looking through the windshield, Nick chuckled at what it said.

'This Car Protected by Sunni Hopps!'

The placard also had some pretty scary artwork on it too. It looked like Sunni had found a picture of a spear-wielding, prehistoric rabbit, like the one Judy and he had seen in the museum when Bellwether's henchmammals were chasing them, and pasted the picture right next to the warning. Nick nodded in satisfaction, the next mammal to try and mess with his car was going to find themselves in some severe trouble with a doe that meant business.

Walking into the house, Nick spied something new. On the large board of hooks used to hold all of the warren's vehicle keys, in the lower right corner, there was a new hook with the name Nick written right above it, and on the hook were his car keys with a brand new mini-carrot keychain.

Nick brushed the plastic carrot and ran his thumb across his name, written in permanent ink on the board, and smiled. He remembered that his mom and dad had a similar board in their kitchen, and his dad had his own special hook for his keys there too.

Just before his inner bunny started to get overly emotional at what Sunni had done, Nick's thoughts were interrupted by voices coming from the kitchen.

"Mom, no. Torrie and I have already paid for our fall semester classes, we'll find a place."

Another doe's voice chimed in, "Yeah, I saw an ad for a place, and I left the landlord a message to call us back so we can go see it. It's a small-mammal studio, and if we skip the furniture and use sleeping bags, we might all fit."

Nick made a face as he heard the voices coming from a phone with its speaker turned on, surrounded by a group of teen or older rabbits, and Bonnie.

Colton looked up at Nick as he walked in and said into the phone, "Hey, Tonya, Torrie, Nick's here. Maybe he can help, he seems to always know a guy."

Nick leaned over the counter and spoke into the phone, "Hey there, uh, Tonya? What do you need help with?"

"Hi Nick, my littermate Torrie, and a couple of my brothers, Phillip and Paul, we're all looking for a place that we can rent together. Torrie and I are going to be Sophomores at the University of Northern Zootopia, and we really can't afford to stay in the dorms another year, and my brothers are trying to get into the fix and flip business. None of us have a lot for rent, so we want to room together."

Pausing for a moment, Tonya sighed and then continued, "Nick, we've spent two weeks going from place to place all over the city. The landlords seem nice on the phone, but as soon as the four of us show up to take a tour, they brush us off, or the rent suddenly goes up, or the place is suddenly already rented. None of our friends are having problems finding a place like we are, any ideas?"

"Have you guys talked with Judy? She's got a place near city central."

"Yeah, I talked to her at the end of last semester, and she didn't have any ideas for off-campus housing. She lives in a different part of town, and after talking to her, we'd decided to stay in the dorms, but then room and board went up a bunch, and my brothers showed up, and I thought we could find a place on our own, so I haven't tried talking to her again. I could give her a call if you think she might know of something."

Nick chuckled, "Nah, I don't think you guys renting a place like hers would work, besides, Colton's right, I know a guy that owes me a favor, hang on."

Nick selected a contact on his phone, and after a few rings, a friendly voice answered.

"Nick, buddy, how's the tail hanging? Long time, no hear."

"Hey, Vic, how's my favorite landlord doing?"

"Uh-oh, sounds like you're looking for a place, finally get tired of living under that bridge, did ya?"

Cringing, Nick quickly putting the phone against his chest and moved away from the group of kits, and their mother, who had suddenly gone still, so they couldn't pick up on what more Vic might say about Nick's previous housing situation.

"Not for me, I'm looking for a place for a few friends. A couple of students and a couple of trades looking to get into the business. All four of them are rabbits from Bunnyburrow. Have you got a small apartment available to rent or know of a place? It can't be too expensive, and they need access to the metro."

"Ahhh, Nicky, four rabbits, all living in the same place? Come on buddy, you're killing me. I'd have an easier time finding you a place, than a pawful of rabbits."

Nick rubbed the back of his neck in frustration, "What do you mean, they're all siblings, come from a good family, if they have to, I'm sure we can figure out a way to put down a more serious deposit if someone is worried about parties or something."

Vic huffed, "Buddy, you're not hearing me, it doesn't have anything to do with the money, it's just… Nicky, I could get fired for telling you this, but, look, owners think if they rent to one rabbit, six months later they're going to be dealing with a couple dozen of them. I know it's not right, but it's what people think."

Biting back a growl, Nick almost barked at his friend, "That's not true, my partner rented a room in the Grand Pangolin Arms, it's not much, but she's had it for over a year."

"Have you asked her how much she's paying a month in rent? I know about the guy that took that place over from Dharma Armadillo, not that she wouldn't gouge a tenant, but that red panda is the kind of guy that makes even a slumlord look good."

Nick glanced back at the group of rabbits to make sure they weren't hearing any of this as Vic continued, "I'll bet your partner is paying twice as much for a quarter of the space anyone else in that building has, and if that panda sees another rabbit, especially a buck, coming out of her room in the morning, I bet he figures out a way to issue her a lease violation for something before the buck reaches the front sidewalk."

Sighing, Nick replied, "Vic hang on a sec," and walked back to the group.

Holding his phone out in his paw, Nick leaned over and spoke to the kits on the phone, "Tonya, where's the place you guys are planning on looking at tomorrow?"

The sound of paper shuffling was followed by Torrie answering for her littermate, "Some guy name Randy is renting a studio near one of the climate control walls in Kursed Falls. It's almost more than we can afford, but it's the only place left we haven't tried. If we don't get this place, then Tonya and I will have to live in the dorms, and we'll get charged twice as much as this place because they'll make us sign up for the meal plans. Those plans are so expensive we'd only have enough money left for one semester, and if we have to go back home, Phillip and Paul will have to go back home too."

Vic's voice broke in, "Nick, Nick, you can't let them go anywhere near Kursed Falls. That's no place for a bunch of country rabbits to live. You know what it's like up there, it's the worst of the worst, it's all predators and none of them like prey hanging around, they won't last a day."

Nick walked away again as he heard his friend sigh and then say in a quieter voice, "Look buddy, I owe you big, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for what you did. I'll find a room for all four of them here, I can probably manage a six-month lease, but it won't get renewed. The owners will can me as soon as they find out, but if they fly under the radar, it may buy them enough time to find another place more rabbit friendly. Say the word and I'll do it if you want me to."

Looking up at the ceiling, Nick groaned, 'How the hell could this be happening? Judy never told me she went through any of this to find an apartment.' Nick walked around, his tail swishing in agitation, he couldn't ask his friend to lose his job, and it wasn't right that Judy's siblings were being discriminated against because of their species.

Nick suddenly stopped pacing as he thought of something, and then he groaned again, this time more at himself than at the situation the kits were in.

"Vic, I'm not going to ask you to get fired over this, besides I think I may have an idea that might work for these guys."

"Thanks, buddy, I owe you for that," came Vic's relieved voice from the phone.

Nick laughed, "Not so fast, Vic, I still need to call in that favor. I've got a couple of bucks here that are going to be looking to use their trade skills. Is it alright if I have them give you a call in a few days?"

"Oh, hell yeah, you know hard it is to find a mammal that knows their way around a plumbing or electrical repair? Have them give me a call, if they're any good I can hook 'em up easy."

Nick put away his phone and went back over to the counter and spoke into the phone there, "Okay guys, I know a place, it needs work, but you can stay there for as long as you like."

"Where is it? How much a month?" Tonya called out excitedly.

"It's my mom and dad's old place. The house is a small bungalow on the north side of Foxburg, and if you guys are okay with taking care of it, paying the utilities, and can deal with the repairs I've been putting off forever, I'll call us even."

"Are you sure? That would be great."

Nick nodded, "Yeah, I'm sure. But don't get too excited, I was serious about it needing some work, there are a few things that need to be done before you can even turn the water back on, like a new faucet in the basement bathroom and maybe even a new water heater."

Nick shook his head at the whooping and hollering coming from the phone and spoke up to be heard over the happy kits, "I'll call Judy with the address, and you guys can get with her and check it out to see if it'll work for you."

Nick heard more excited shouts and then 'thank yous' from all four of the kits as they hung up. Nick checked the time and remembering that Judy had a soccer game this morning decided to text her instead of calling. He spent a couple of minutes composing a message to Judy, letting her know what was going on, how to get the key, and a few things to show the kits when they all got there, and then he finished the text with the address of the house in Foxburg.

Slipping his phone in his pocket, Nick could feel a pair of eyes on him. Looking up, he saw Bonnie giving him a look. Nick raised an eyebrow at the gaze and asked, "What?"

…..

Judy was practically vibrating in her seat, scratch that, she was vibrating. They'd won! Judy so wanted to do a binky in the metro car aisleway but was doing her best to contain her excitement. She didn't want any of the other car's passengers to call for a padded wagon, or worse, post a video of her on EweTube.

From start to finish the kits had played a great game and beat the league's second-place team 2-0. Having CJ on the team as a fullback, meant that she'd been able to move a couple of the other kits around and improve their offense by giving Tam a few more targets to pass to. CJ's play had also helped the defense by taking some of the pressure off of Cooper, which in turn, meant that Jeffery was free to roam and disrupt any organized attack on their goal. Rory hadn't been bored in net, but she'd never been overwhelmed either, which meant she could manage the defense better so that the other team got fewer quality shots on goal.

After the win, the whole team found a small pavilion at the soccer park and celebrated with an early lunch. Toni had brought a cooler of sandwich fixings while the other parents brought bread, chips, drinks, and some vegetables to share.

Judy was about twenty minutes away from her stop when her phone vibrated with a message from her younger sister Tonya. Headed to your apartment, Nick said you could help us out.

Judy was about to text back a confused bunny emoji when she saw a message from Nick she'd missed. Judy flipped over to Nick's message, and as she scrolled through his text, she started to shake her head in wonder at what her fox was doing.

After reading to the end of the message and seeing an address in Foxburg listed, Judy checked the time and texted Tonya back letting her know she'd be at her place in about twenty minutes and for them to text her when they get close to her building and she'd meet them out front.

…..

The Red River Hog adjusted the electronic microscope again, zooming in on the blood cells and adjusting the resolution so he could see the botanicals attached to the red blood cells. It had taken time and practice for him to recognize what he was looking at and even more time in the lab to identify the markers that became visible just before…

Looking up at the timer counting on the screen and then back at the microscope display, he waited. And waited a few more minutes, still nothing. The hog smiled and looked up at the timer and was about to start celebrating when it happened, the membranes of the botanicals began to split and the chemicals released in mass hammered the red blood cells. Of course, the white blood cells woke up to what was happening and started consuming the now visible foreign matter, which itself was also breaking down. Within minutes most of the components of the drug would be gone.

"Damn, I thought for sure that adding a buffer to help bind the botanicals to the blood cells was going to help." Standing up, the reddish-brown furred mammal began to pace. 'Something else is preventing a solid connection. What could it be?'

Pacing some more, he stopped in front of another monitor that showed an old serval sleeping on the floor of a bare cell in another part of the lab complex. Staring at the screen, the hog stroked the long gray hairs on his chin as he thought to himself, 'The old version of the drug worked better on that young raccoon we snatched months ago, and when my idiot lab assistant used the same batch of the drug on the caracal he was trying to acquire, she responded too, at least that's what Mr. White had said. Neither of the preds responded well enough to call that version of the drug a success, but it worked better on them than the new version is working on this old geezer. Why? What's the difference I'm missing?'

The hog's thoughts were interrupted by a buzzing noise from his phone. Grabbing the phone, he tapped on the screen to read the text message from his mate. Scrolling down, he groaned, he should have met them at the mud pit an hour ago. It was supposed to be a family day, but he'd had to come in and look over the latest test results, and now he was in trouble. Of course, it didn't help that his thirteen-year-old son had decided to hit puberty this month and was driving his mother up a wall with his out of control attitude.

Typing a reply to his mate, he told her that yes, he was heading home, and yes, he'd have a talk with his son, and yes, he'd give her a hoof massage tonight because…

'His son has a bad attitude.'

'His son has just hit puberty.'

'The raccoon and the caracal were young.'

'His current test subject is old.'

'Hormones.'

A half an hour, and two more texts from his mate later, the hog tore himself away from his computer and dialing a special number, made a phone call.

"White, here."

"This is Orange, I need to know when I can expect another subject. I think I've found something, and I need two or three younger test subjects, including at least one female, to test out my theory."

White huffed, "We're working on acquiring a new subject, you'll have to make do with what you have for now."

"No, I need fresh specimens right away. It's been two weeks since you've even tried to get me another animal, what's going on?"

"Orange, you need to be patient, we're having a little problem with the ZPD, and we've had to be a little more careful in the animals we try to acquire."

"Acquisition is not my problem, if you're having troubles, you need to work those out with Mr. Brown. Right now, he's on my tail to move forward, and now that I think I have a solution, I can't test. Either you fix this and get me some animals I can use, or I'm going directly to Brown. Understand?"

Sighing, White replied, "I understand."

…..

Judy heard a pounding on her door and quickly jumped up from her desk and opened the door.

"Hey, Jude. How are you?" asked Tonya as she opened her arms to hug her older sister.

Judy dodged the hug and pulled her siblings into her room, poked her head out in the hall, and then not seeing anyone, quickly closed the door. "What are you guys doing up here? I told you to text me and then wait out front."

"Aw, come on Jude, Phillip, and I wanted to see your place," Paul said as he turned around in the tight and now crowded space. "Nice place, Judy, kind of small, not that much bigger than your room back home. Is there a bathroom?"

"Or a closet?" asked Phillip.

Judy cut off the questions as she gave everyone a quick hug and then said, "Guys, it's great seeing you, but let's talk in the truck, we should get going."

Judy opened her door and ushered everyone out. Locking the door, she led the group down the stairs to the lobby. Just as they reached the first floor, Mr. Critterly's door opened, and Judy's landlord stepped out.

"Miss Hopps."

Judy pushed her siblings toward the lobby door and then went back to where the red panda was standing with his arms folded across his chest. "Hi Mr. Critterly, uh, a few of my brothers and sisters are in town and stopped by for just one minute, that's all, and we're leaving now, see you later."

Judy ran to catch up with her siblings, leaving the scowling landlord behind.

Once in the truck, Judy relaxed, and using her phone, gave Paul directions to Foxburg.

Looking up, Judy asked, "So what's going on? Nick said that he's letting you guys stay at his parent's house, I thought you were going to find a place as close to the UNZ campus as possible. What happened?"

Tonya huffed, "I think you can guess what happened, we've been looking for a place ever since Paul and Phillip came out a couple of weeks ago, and every time we show up to see an apartment, it's either rented already, or the rent suddenly went up."

"Yeah, if it hadn't been for Nick, we might have had to withdraw from school and head back home," added Torrie.

"Have you ever been to his parent's house before? Nick said it needed some work."

Judy shook her head, "Nope, he never mentioned having a place in Foxburg, heck, I've never even been to his place in the city."

"What do you mean, Janae said you guys have known each other for over a year, how could you have never been to his place?"

"Yeah, I asked him a couple of times before he left for the academy if I could come by for a visit, but he always told me that he was fixing it up, or the plumbing wasn't working or something like that." Judy shrugged, "I even tried to surprise him with a picnic lunch once. I was going to knock on his door and take him out to a park for the afternoon."

"What happened?"

I went to the address I had for him, but when I got there, it turned out that the address was for some fox lawyer's law firm, not an apartment.

"Oooh, was it some mob lawyer named Guido or Knuckles McFang? I bet Raven would like to know too, especially if the lawyer owns a motorcycle and wears a faux leather jacket."

Judy rolled her eyes, "Please, Nick's a good guy, and I looked up the law firm, they do a mix of corporate law and pro bono cases for disadvantaged mammals that need help."

"So, did you ever try following him home, you sure did that often enough at the warren to anyone trying to sneak out after curfew."

Judy smirked, "Yeah, I tried that once, it didn't work on him, though."

Noticing the slightly dreamy look on Judy's face, Torrie asked, "Why, what happened?"

"Well, one day after our shift ended, I waited outside the precinct building for him to head home, and then I followed him. I snuck behind bushes and benches and even hid behind a warthog when I followed Nick onto a metro car."

"A real challenge, huh?"

Nodding, Judy continued, "After about forty-five minutes of being led all over town, he finally went into a small three-story building with apartments on the top level and a pretty nice Italian restaurant on the first floor."

"Ooh, you like Italian, don't you?"

"Yeah, and when I followed him into the restaurant, the Maître D' greeted me by name and led me to a table out on a private patio where Nick was waiting."

Judy shook her head and smiled, "It turned out that leading me all over town was his way of hustling me into having dinner with him. It was a really nice dinner, too."

Nibbling her lip a little, Judy added, "I kind of gave up trying to figure out where he lived after that, and just had him come over to my place more often."

Torrie saw the glow on Judy's face as she finished, "He sounds like a really sweet guy, too bad he's not a buck, huh?"

Judy just looked out the window and quietly replied, "I don't know, I kind of like him just the way he is."

…..

"Nicholas?"

"Yes, Mrs. H."

"Thank you for helping Tonya and her siblings, that was very generous of you."

Chuckling, Nick replied, "You may want to wait until they see the house before saying that, if they can take care of all the maintenance, it's probably me getting the better end of the deal."

"I highly doubt that."

"Well, maybe, but that house has been sitting empty for a while now and listening to Tonya and Torrie, reminded me that I should have done something with that place a long time ago. All that house does now is bring back memories I'd like to forget."

Bonnie put a paw on Nick's arm, "It's where you grew up, not all your memories of it can be bad ones."

Nick shrugged, "It's a little complicated." And then firming up, he looked Bonnie in the eyes, and said, "A very wise rabbit told me last night that I was spending too much time worrying about things that happened years ago and convinced me to start letting a few things go, and doing something good with my parent's old place is a step in that direction."

Taking a breath, Nick asked more than stated, "I'd really appreciate it if you'd let me do this for your kits."

Thinking about all she'd seen from the young tod, and a few of the things he'd said over the last couple of weeks, Bonnie knew there was a lot more going on than Nicholas was willing to admit. She thought about pressing him, but seeing the almost pleading look in his eyes, she decided that her motherly prodding could wait for another time and instead said, "Alright, if you're sure."

"Yes, yes I am."

…..

Paul pulled the truck into the driveway of a small bungalow. It was an old one-story house with a detached garage on a grassy lot with two large oak trees in the front and a maple tree in the back. Judy and her siblings all got out of the truck, split up, and walked around the outside of the house to see what kind of shape it was in. Meeting up by the front door, Judy spied the lockbox attached to the bottom of the porch's wrought iron railing.

Paul was all smiles, "Looks decent on the outside, needs new paint, and one of the back windows is boarded up, but it looks like the yard is in good shape."

Judy was scrolling through Nick's text as she replied, "Nick said in his text that he has someone in the neighborhood take care of the yard work, so it doesn't get too overgrown." Mumbling to herself as she scrolled the text up and down, "Combo, where are you?"

Phillip looked at the lockbox and chuckled, "Please tell me it's not 1-2-3-4."

Torrie piped up, "Hey, that's the combination to my luggage."

Everyone, including Judy, looked at their sister with a raised brow."

"What? It's the same as I use for my ATM card, my phone screen lock, and all my internet passwords."

Paul facepalmed, "Torrie… aren't you majoring in Computer Security?"

"Uh-huh, so?"

"We're all doomed."

Judy turned the dial to the final number, pulled the key out, and let her siblings into the house.

As her siblings rushed around exploring, Judy went from room to room, trying to imagine her partner as a little kit growing up here. The main level had two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom with a tub and shower. There were a few old pieces of furniture in each of the rooms, and some partially filled cardboard boxes. It looked like someone had just about finished getting rid of stuff and packing to move out when they stopped for some reason.

Judy looked in one of the open boxes and found an old picture on top. Pulling it out, she saw that it was of Nick as a kit in his Ranger Scout uniform with his mom holding him from behind. Brushing her paw across the front of the picture, she couldn't help but think how adorable he was as a kit and how wonderful of guy he'd grown up to be.

Tonya padded into the room while Judy was lost in thought looking at the picture in her paw. As Tonya came up to her sister, she put her arm around Judy's waist and gave her a side hug. Pointing at the picture, Tonya cooed, "Is that Nick as a kit? He sure was cute."

Judy nodded, "Yeah, that's him, and he's still pretty cute."

Tonya and Judy walked downstairs to where the rest of the siblings were talking and comparing notes.

Torrie was excited, "Judy this is perfect, there's another bathroom and three decent sized rooms down here, so we can all have a bedroom, and there's a room leftover Paul and Phillip can use for their business.

Paul chimed in, "Most of the work that needs doing is maintenance. The water was turned off at the main, and the drains sealed with plumber's antifreeze, which is good. Nick was right that we can't turn the water back on right away, but he was wrong about the water heater, it doesn't need to be replaced, it just needs new fittings and probably a new thermocouple. On the bad side, both the toilets need to be replaced, at least three circuit breakers in the main panel are bad, and the furnace needs to be cleaned before we can turn it on."

Phillip added, "There are washer dryer hookups, but no washer and dryer, so we'll need to go online and see if we can find a cheap set, the inside could use some paint, and…" waving his paw toward the larger basement room, "…there are some old sewing machines and a couple of tailor's triple dressing mirrors in the big room over there that we need to do something with."

Both Torrie and Tonya, got excited at hearing about the mirrors and ran in for a look.

"I want one in my room!"

"Me too, I can see my tail no problem with this," squealed Tonya.

"You and your tail, guys like ears," replied Torrie.

"No, you just like your ears petted, you know Mom would freak if she found out you let boys touch your ears on a first date."

"Don't you dare tell her, or I'll ink your tail brush."

Judy rolled her eyes and turned back to her snickering brothers, "Nick said to put the sewing equipment, the boxes upstairs, and anything else you don't want to use in the garage, he's already got some boxes of the stuff he wants to keep out there."

Waving her phone in front of Paul and Phillip, Judy asked, "So, what do you want me to tell him, are you guys interested, or not?"

The girls came running back in, "Yes, tell him yes."

Paul nodded, "Yeah, and let him know we'll be able to do the repairs and fix the place up for him too."

…..

Judy was all showered and sitting on her bed in an extra-large, for her, ZPD t-shirt that fell off one shoulder a little. She would typically have on her carrot-print pajama top, but between soccer and helping her siblings she hadn't been able to get any laundry, or the fox pining she'd promised Nick, done today, well maybe she got in a little of the pining, but just a little and that was earlier in the day. Right now, her phone was propped against her pillow and she was absent-mindedly playing with one of her ears while waiting for Nick to answer.

She'd finished up with her siblings by helping them unload the truck and putting their stuff inside the house. Paul and Tonya gave Judy a ride to the nearby metro station on their way to the nearest Den Depot hardware store. Paul planned to pick up what he and Phillip needed for the plumbing and electrical repairs while Tonya was after some cleaning supplies. They both gave Judy a quick hug and told her to pass on their thanks to Nick. Unfortunately, they couldn't chat very long, Paul wanted to try and get the circuit breakers replaced before it got so dark out that they needed to do the work by flashlight.

Judy had an uneventful ride back and was able to slip through the lobby without Mr. Critterly noticing her and giving her a hard time about her siblings visiting.

"Hey, Carrots. How's my favorite… whoa," leaning closer to the phone, Judy could see Nick raise an eyebrow and then continue, "…bunny?"

Oblivious to Nick's look, Judy replied, "Hey Slick, it looks like you had a busy day. Tonya, Torrie, Paul, and Phillip all love the house and said thanks, over and over. They promised to take good care of your parent's place."

"I'm glad I could help them out. That old house has been sitting empty for a while, and as a wise bunny once told me, I need to start letting a few things from my past go if I want to move forward with my life."

Judy chuckled, "Well, I'm not sure the wise bunny thought you'd end up inviting a bunch of her siblings to live in your parent's house just because no one else would rent to them."

"You mean, kind of like the wise bunny's family inviting a strange fox to stay with them while he's in town working?"

Both mammals went silent for a few moments until Judy quietly asked, "So, Nick, what happened that you let your parent's house sit vacant so long? I get the feeling there's more going on than helping out some kits."

Nick huffed, "That might be a conversation for another time, I'm not sure you're ready for two nights in a row of emotional fox talk."

Judy exaggerated getting comfortable on her bed and then pointed up to her waggling ears.

Nick shook his head and sighed, "Fine, but no movie quotes this time, alright?"

Judy made a lip-zippering motion and nodded for Nick to continue.

"Okay. So, you know that my mom died, but what you don't know is that she died of cancer. It took about eighteen months from the initial diagnosis to when she passed. After my dad died, we didn't have a lot of money, so my mom picked a medical group that advertised that they serviced those that weren't too well off, unfortunately, they ended up being more interested in trying to bleed mammals out of their savings and submit false claims under their names to ZooCare than really try to heal them.

"By the time that my mom figured out what was going on, the cancer had progressed to the point that no treatment available was going to help, so she checked herself out of the practice and went home. The medical group kept trying to get her to come back for another test or to try some expensive treatment they found, anything to run up the bills they sent the ZooCare as much as they could.

"She passed when I was sixteen."

Judy looked stricken, "I'm so sorry Nick, you were just a kit."

"It's alright." Suddenly smiling a little, Nick asked, "Carrots, do you remember last night, when I told you that my mom was the planner in the family?"

Judy nodded, "Yeah."

"Well, those lowlifes at the medical group sicced their collections team on me and tried to go after the house. They continued to pad their bills with all sorts of bogus charges and then used those bills to try and put liens on the house, and then they sent collection agents out to try and do everything they could to take it away from me."

"How did you stop them?"

"A lot of it was my mom. When my dad died, she moved the house into a Trust set up by a lawyer friend of hers, and when the bill collectors came, he was able to help me fight them off."

Judy nodded, "The law firm on Cypress Grove Lane, you've been using their address for all your paperwork."

"You checked that out, huh?"

"Yeah, back when I was trying to figure out where you were living, sorry."

Nick laughed, "Don't be, I'd have been disappointed if you hadn't. Using the law firm's address was my mom's idea. She was worried that as a minor, I might have to move out of the house after she passed, and so she arranged for me to be able to stay at Sister Mary's just in case and had the law firm take care of all the legal paperwork."

"Wow, your mom must have been one smart vixen."

"Yeah, she was. The collections department kept trying and trying to collect on the bogus debt until an investigative reporter got involved, she put a spotlight on everything that organization had been doing to disadvantaged mammals for years. By the time the dust settled, the group had to dissolve and the worst of the offenders had lost their licenses and a few even went to jail."

Judy scrunched her brow as she thought, "So why did you beat yourself up over what happened? You were the victim in all this."

Nick took a breath, "I, uh, well, the battle over the house took a couple of years, and all during that fight, I spent most of my time learning everything I could about the law. The collection outfit was using every loophole they could find, and I fought back by bending and twisting the law any and every way I could. By the time it was all over, I was a pretty jaded fox."

"Less jaded now, I hope," Judy said with a smile.

Nick chuckled, "Definitely, it's kind of hard to be too jaded with such a bundle of positive energy always bouncing around you.

"No, my problem was that I spent so long fighting to keep the house, that it became a pride thing for me. I knew there was almost no chance I was going to live there again, and my mom and dad would have wanted me to do something with it besides letting it sit empty."

"Like what?"

"Well, I could have sold it to a family in the community that was having trouble getting into a place or…"

"Let some kits who no one would rent to stay in it," Judy finished for him.

"Yeah."

"Nick, you did good today, I think your parents would be proud of you."

…..

Hayes pulled his small Catillac next to the barn and parked. He probably should have taken his dad's old truck, but it was a working bun's truck, all beat up, and didn't fit the image of an up and coming high-society buck that he was trying to cultivate.

Brushing off his pants, Hayes pulled a dirty bag and some gardening tools out of the back of his car and quickly took everything into the barn. He dumped the tools on a workbench and hid the bag behind some old parts that his dad used to care about before he'd passed. A shame the old bun was gone, he may not have had the same interest in growing the Hayes family empire that he did, but he did know how to farm.

After moving his car closer to the house, Hayes stopped on the porch of his small house and stared off toward the Edwards' place. He couldn't see much of anything in the waning light, but he knew where it was and what he wanted.

Pushing open the door, he went in and gave his mate a chaste peck on the cheek before setting his faux leather briefcase on a chair.

"You're home late, where have you been all day?"

"I had a few errands to take care of, and then I went to check out some land on the far side of the gulch."

Padding over to her mate, she put a paw on his cheek, "Honey, you know that bun Edwards is never going to let you merge our two warrens, no matter what kind of deal you put together, he's just not right in the head. So, please stop thinking about it, it's not good for your blood pressure, and I don't want to have to take you to the hospital again."

"Don't worry dear, I'm fit as a fiddle," grabbing some vegetables from a tray leftover from the dinner he'd missed, Hayes added, "I need to drive into Zootopia tomorrow, so I'll be gone early. I have a business meeting, and then I have to drop off a box of produce samples."

"That's wonderful Honey, a new retailer for our goods?"

"Yeah, something like that."